Brand personality of tourist destinations: An application of self-congruity theory

Ahmet Usakli and Seyhmus Baloglu

Tourism Management, 2011, vol. 32, issue 1, 114-127

Abstract: The purpose of this research was to investigate the perceived destination personality of Las Vegas and to examine the relationships among destination personality, self-congruity, and tourist’s behavioral intentions. A convenience sample of 382 visitors to Las Vegas was surveyed, and 368 usable questionnaires were analyzed. The findings of the study indicate that tourists ascribe personality characteristics to destinations and that the perceived destination personality of Las Vegas is five dimensional: vibrancy, sophistication, competence, contemporary, and sincerity. These dimensions have a positive influence on tourists’ intention to return and intention to recommend. The study also supports the self-congruity theory within the context of tourism destinations, indicating that both actual congruity and ideal congruity have a positive impact on behavioral intentions. The study concludes that self-congruity is a partial mediator on the relationship between destination personality and tourist’s behavioral intentions. The practical and theoretical implications are discussed within the contexts of destination branding and the self-congruity theory.

Keywords: Destination branding; Brand personality; Destination personality; Self-congruity theory; Las Vegas (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (54)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261517710001172

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:touman:v:32:y:2011:i:1:p:114-127

DOI: 10.1016/j.tourman.2010.06.006

Access Statistics for this article

Tourism Management is currently edited by Chris Ryan

More articles in Tourism Management from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().